The Parliaments of Gods and Men in the Knight's Tale

Description: Chaucer's uses of parliamentary terminology throughout KnT, but especially in Saturn's counsel to Venus and in Theseus's "First Mover" speech, establish a parallel between divine and human realms, revealing "the abuse of power and authority" in both and effecting a critical assessment, in turn, of the Ricardian court and of the "norms of English political discourse."